Rebirth 2010: I taught Mr. Lei how to make a mobile phone

Chapter 746 Who is fishing?
Beijing, Zhongguancun.

The morning sun shines through the glass curtain wall into the office on the 16th floor of the Cube Court Building.

The bright yellow ofo logo on the wall is particularly eye-catching. David stands in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, overlooking the bustling morning rush hour in Zhongguancun, with steam rising from the coffee in his hand. He is used to and enjoys this feeling of looking down from a high vantage point.

This office of less than 200 square meters now carries his dream of changing the way people travel in cities.

Since receiving RMB 1500 million in Series A funding from Jinshajiang, ofo's team has expanded from an initial Peking University startup team to more than 50 people.

In the office area, young faces are busy answering and making phone calls, and the map of universities across the country on the wall is filled with yellow thumbtacks - from the original four universities in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen to the more than 20 key universities across the country that are about to be entered.

"Mr. Dai, this is the latest operating data." The assistant handed over a report.

David took a quick look: the average daily orders exceeded 1, and there were over 10 registered users, all of whom were college students.

This data made him very satisfied. The precise student market and high-frequency car demand are exactly the "high-quality traffic entrance" that investors value most.

My phone suddenly vibrated, and the caller ID showed an unfamiliar number. “Hello, I’m the investment director of Beyond Ventures.”

The voice on the other end of the phone made David straighten his back instantly.

After the half-hour call, he held the hot phone in his hand, his eyes sparkling with excitement.

The other side of the venture capital!

The top venture capital firm known for “only investing in the first in the track”, the investment scale of hundreds of millions, the industry legend of “more money and less work”.

The other party said that they are optimistic about ofo and have investment intentions, and will send people to investigate later.

Over the next few days, David's attitude toward other investors became noticeably more relaxed.

Ofo is now a project that Bi'an has set its sights on. It is no longer something these small Karamis can afford. Even if they were asked to invest, they would no longer be interested in a small business worth a few hundred million or tens of millions.

When Zhu Xiaohu called and hesitantly said that Didi's investment might be cold, David couldn't help but chuckle: "Mr. Zhu, to be honest, Bi'an has already extended an olive branch to us. Who is the Didi you are talking about?"

After hanging up the phone, he turned around in his swivel chair, and began to calculate the scale of ofo's B round of financing in his mind. Was it 3 million? 5 million? Or even 10 billion?
David has already begun to enjoy ofo's expansion plan across the country after the financing.

But cautious David was not carried away by excitement.

Like an experienced Aquaman, he continued to maintain a close but distant relationship with other investors, treating them as backup plans.

After all, he was not so naive as to give up the entire forest just because of a call from a director of Beyond Venture Capital.

A few days later, investment letters from various institutions had piled up on David's desk, but his eyes were always on the Bi'an Investment Memorandum that had not yet been formally signed.

Outside the window, the traffic in Zhongguancun is still flowing.

David knew that the golden age of ofo was coming.

The sun in Beijing was scorching in June, but the area in front of the Cube Court Building was exceptionally lively.

David adjusted his suit and tie, and beads of sweat appeared on his palms.

When the black Maybach slowly stopped, he saw that the person who got out was Wu Dan, the president of Bia'an Venture Capital. His heartbeat instantly accelerated. This "God of Wealth" in the investment world, who was in charge of hundreds of billions of funds, actually led a team to conduct an inspection in person.

This wave is stable!
After a brief greeting, the two parties came to the meeting room. When David was about to explain the business plan to the other party, Wu Dan raised his hand to interrupt him.
"It's a waste of time if you don't wear it. My habit is to look at it myself, and we ask questions and you answer them."

Wu Dan's powerful aura made everyone in David's entrepreneurial team sit up straight.

Wu Dan was flipping through the business plan, his eyes behind his gold-rimmed glasses sharp as an eagle: "Mr. Dai, do you know why we are optimistic about ofo?"

Without waiting for an answer, he continued, "The closed nature of the campus scene and the communication potential of the student group make this the perfect testing ground for shared bikes."

"Bi'an has invested in many projects before, all of which were started by campus students. Not to mention the distant past, the founders of Ele.me, Zhang Xuhao, and Mihoyo were all from the same dormitory. It is conceivable that ofo David will become another star project of Bi'an in the future."

"Don't worry, we have two models at Bi'an Venture Capital. The former is like Ele.me, where Bi'an invests and controls the company, but generally does not interfere with the specific operations. The other model is like the latter, where we only invest money and do nothing else to let the company develop. As for which one to choose, please think about it in advance, Mr. Dai."

"Bian and I are both very optimistic about the shared bike industry. Otherwise, I would not have come here in person. With the investment from Bi'an, ofo may become the taxi-based travel industry in the next two years, especially since it started as a campus startup. Mr. Dai and his colleagues are all top students from Peking University. This is a sure thing."

"Why is the next round of financing only tens of millions of yuan? It must be calculated in 100 million dollars. President Dai, do you have no confidence in yourself or in the other side?"

"Of course, the exact amount still requires us to conduct a careful, detailed and rigorous assessment."

Two hours later, David respectfully saw the other party off, thinking about the words Wu Dan had just left in his mind.

Looking at the prosperous scene of Shanghai and the clear sky above, he felt that the future was a sea of ​​stars.

David will definitely have a place in the future of China's, no, even the world's, business.

The founder of the sharing economy, the king of bicycles, well, he likes these two titles, and when he achieves something in the future, he will let the media report it this way.

In the jungle law of the capital market, only the strong can stand firm. The strength displayed by the Bi'an Group through the Forbes list is just the tip of the iceberg of its business empire, but it has shocked the entire capital circle.

When Wu Dan announced that Bi'an would invest in ofo, most investors withdrew from the market - after all, not everyone can be as brave as Bat and compete with Bi'an for food.

The thundering methods used by the other side in the past have always been feared. This is a consequence that no one can bear. Even someone as strong as Lao Ma has to think twice.

However, this time Wu Dan adopted a relatively restrained strategy, targeting only ofo rather than the entire shared bicycle market, which not only achieved a deterrent effect but also avoided making too many enemies.

By then, when the travel bike business is developed and a group of new investment allies are attracted in, there should be no hidden worries about the negative impact of dividing one group, attracting another group, and cracking down on another group.

Wu Dan was quite surprised by the meeting with David.

The blueprint drawn by the other party seems beautiful, but it is full of loopholes upon closer inspection.

What confused him even more was that although Mobike had a better development momentum, his boss had a special liking for ofo.

With the capital strength of the other side, they could have easily crushed us, so why go to so much trouble?
This seemingly mediocre David might not even be able to attend university if it weren't for his father. What made him so outstanding?

Although he didn't know the reason, Wu Dan could vaguely sense the boss's deep intention: giving hope first and then destroying it with personal hands, letting the ambitious young people gradually despair in the rapid development of competitors, this is simply a heart-breaking strategy.

Could it be that the boss had some other grudge against the Dai family? Although he had many questions in mind, Wu Dan always followed his boss's instructions perfectly.

Although Wu Dan was puzzled, he not only strictly carried out his boss's orders, but also learned from them.

Originally, he only needed to send an investment team to make the contact, but Wu Dan chose to do it himself.

After all, it was the boss who personally initiated the request, and he thought it would be more effective if he went there himself.

After the matter was done, he sent a message to his boss: "Done, I have given the other party a reassurance, which will be effective for about three months. If I continue to drag it out, it will probably take half a year."

One minute later, a reply came, "Good job!"

According to the law of conservation of energy, if someone did a good job, someone else might have done it wrong.

In the past few years, Google, which has dominated the search field, has encountered rare and tenacious attacks from Microsoft.

Bing's market share has climbed from less than 5% at the beginning to 18.6%. Although it still cannot shake Google's dominant position, it has successfully established a foothold in the search market.

Even Google founder Sergey Brin had to publicly admit: "Bing reminds us that search is still a competitive market. They did a good job, especially Qi Lu... This really surprised me."

In July 2013, then-CEO Ballmer led the largest reorganization in Microsoft's history, integrating the original eight business units into four core segments: operating system (OSG), application software (ASG), servers (C+E) and hardware (WDG).

In this transformation, Lu Qi stood out and became one of Microsoft's "Four Heavenly Kings", in charge of the Applications and Services Group (ASG), managing core product lines such as Office, Bing, and Skype.

Among them, Office, as Microsoft's "cash cow", plays a vital role, and Lu Qi has therefore become part of Microsoft's power core.

However, the good times did not last long. Although Microsoft is still one of the most profitable technology giants in the world, it has been losing ground in the wave of mobile Internet and has been left far behind by Apple and Google.

The board of directors pointed the finger at Ballmer, believing that his slow decision-making caused Microsoft to miss a good opportunity for transformation.

In February 2014, Ballmer left the company in disgrace, and a five-month battle for the CEO position began.

There were six candidates to replace him at the time: COO Kevin Turner, hardware VP Julie Larson-Green, business VP Tony Bates, software services VP Lu Qi, cloud computing enterprise business VP Satya Nadella

Among the six candidates, Lu Qi has the highest voice - whether in terms of technical background, management ability, or internal prestige, he is the best candidate.

But in the end, Microsoft's board of directors unexpectedly chose Nadella, an Indian veteran who has worked at Microsoft for 22 years.

This decision may seem unexpected, but it actually coincides with Microsoft's strategic shift: cloud computing is becoming a new growth engine, and Nadella is the leader in this field.

On another level, Microsoft is selectively favoring a certain group.

After taking office, Nadella immediately began the three major tasks of a new official, adjusting the strategy and business focus. The internal structural reorganization and personnel adjustments have never stopped.

The industry calls it a "de-Ballmerization" action. During the adjustment process, many old officials from the Ballmer era were purged, but Nadella's former leader Qi Lu was still entrusted with important tasks as his right-hand man.

Lu Qi was able to continue to lead the applications and services department, and was called Microsoft's "new big three" together with Terry Myerson and Scott Guthrie.

Three years later, Microsoft's cloud business is booming, but Lu Qi is lying in a hospital bed.

He looked at the snow-white ceiling and whispered to himself, "Is it finally my turn?"

Thinking about the bicycle accident a while ago, he was a little unsure.

Was this man-made or an accident?

Or a man-made accident.
(End of this chapter)